Eddie Howe's side threw yet another lead away in what is becoming an alarming trend
Newcastle United lost 4-1 at Liverpool despite taking the lead
Newcastle United lost 4-1 at Liverpool despite taking the lead
View Image
Who was the bigger loss? Alexander Isak to Liverpool? Or Hugo Ekitike to Liverpool? Newcastle have scratched around to find a new centre-forward having spent £124m but neither arrival was deemed reliable enough to start at Anfield.
Neither did Isak of course - but Ekitike did and boy did we pay for it. He exposed United's fragile defending after they had run the match deservedly going ahead and within a two minute spell we were undone.
Defend like United did against quality and punishment is inevitable. Eddie Howe was deprived of the comfort blanket of a back five so compact in Paris and consequently we reverted to being flimsy and fragile.
The Mags chased Ekitike longer than Richard Burton pursued Elizabeth Taylor but he spurned our advances and killed us. Having scored at SJP in a 3-2 Liverpool victory he ladled it on at Anfield. Wonderful feet, radar vision, arrogance and ability in abundance.
The Frenchman turned the game in the blink of an eye when United were dominant and then another class act, Florian Wirtz, took it away from the Geordies.
If cautious Eddie suddenly became a gambler in Paris he did it again on Merseyside. Unable to be compact at the back due to Sven Botman's constant physical fragility, he flattened out the back but dumped both Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa on the subs' bench handing the centre-forward role to Anthony Gordon who hadn't scored a PL goal in 32 matches.
Yet within little more than half an hour he had in his home city and the visitors were in command . . . until Ekitike reminded us why we were so persistent in our chase of his talent.
United were enterprising going forward for much of the game but repeatedly shocking defensively which leaves the season rapidly running away from them.
However you dress it up recent results have seen United held by habitual losers Wolves, well beaten at home by Aston Villa, done again at four-goal Liverpool, and unable to make automatic qualification in the Champions League despite a sterling performance against Paris Saint Germain.
Fact: they have lost 16 points from winning positions and that is abject surrender.
Newcastle's grim record at Anfield continues to stretch over three decades. They last won in the days of the Entertainers, 1995, when a solitary Steve Watson goal brought victory in the League Cup. That in itself is shocking and in the end United were shocking after initially promising so much.
Where do we go from here? Manchester City away where, already two goals down, United are staring at Carabao Cup elimination especially if they defend as they did here. It doesn't get any easier.
Thanks for the Memories
He is 90 this year which probably makes him the oldest Newcastle United player still actively among us. Or at very least one of the oldest.
Gordon Hughes was known as the Fatfield Flyer, a winger so quick he could catch pigeons. Others nicknamed him Charlie on account of his resemblance to equally diminutive comedian of the day Charlie Drake.
Anyway when I was guest speaker at United's Memory Cafe within St James Park over the last few days I was delighted to meet up with Gordon who was sitting alongside another former Mag Dave Hilley who has turned 87.
The third person on a table bearing some stature was Bob Moncur, the sprightly young man of the group at 81 who celebrated his birthday this last month. Lest we forget Newcastle have a history and we should always remember those who served.
All three actually played in the same Newcastle side at varying stages of their careers.
Signed from Tow Law in 1956 by Magpies manager Charlie Mitten, Gordon continued to work down the pit and was still a miner when scoring twice in United's sensational 7-3 win over Matt Busby's Manchester United on January 2 1960. What a link to a very different era.
Hughes played more than 140 games on the right wing for United and went on to have lengthy stays with Derby County and Lincoln City before returning home to the North East.
The lunchtime date was a joy. Compared by Stuart Campbell, who did us all proud, it was packed out with enthusiastic Newcastle fans as we all took a leisurely stroll down memory lane.
I met a lovely lady well into her nineties who is an avid Jackie Milburn fan and was in the crowd as a young 'un when United tortured Newport County 13-0 way back in 1946 just after the resumption of football following the Second World War. Still the club's biggest ever victory.
Len Shackleton scored six, she told me, and Wor Jackie got two. He had to be mentioned of course.
In fact Shack scored six on what was his debut for United while Charlie Wayman picked up four. The other goal? Roy Bentley.